tint

• IPA^(key): /tɪnt/
• Rhymes: -ɪnt
• Homophone: tent (pin–pen merger)

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Alteration of earlier tinct, influenced by French teinte (“tint”), from Latin tinctus (“dyed”), past participle of verb tingō (“tinge”). Doublet of tent (“kind of red wine”). Cognate with Dutch tint, Estonian tint, French teinte, German Tinte, Hungarian tinta, Italian tinta, Luxembourgish Tintin, Portuguese tinta, and Spanish tinta.

tint (plural tints)

1. A slight coloring.
2. A pale or faint tinge of any color; especially, a variation of a color obtained by adding white (contrast shade)
3. A color considered with reference to other very similar colors.

   Red and blue are different colors, but two shades of scarlet are different tints.

4. A shaded effect in engraving, produced by the juxtaposition of many fine parallel lines.
5. (automotive, informal) A vehicle window that has been darkened to conceal the occupant.
   • 2010, Rochelle Magee, No Witnesses: A Perilous Journey, page 36:

     About an hour later, she noticed an all black Phantom with tints and chrome rims riding slowly through the car lot.

   • 2021, Carol Park, Memoir of a Cashier: Korean Americans, Racism, and Riots:

     I'd watch as cars marched by like a line of ants. Cars with those cool hydraulics. Cars with tints so dark, you couldn't see anything inside.

tint (third-person singular simple present tints, present participle tinting, simple past and past participle tinted)

1. (transitive, intransitive)  To shade, to color.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.

• tinter

Unknown(?)

• int

tint

1. (Yorkshire, colloquial) it is not; it isn't; 'tisn't; it'sn't

From Latin tinctus, past participle of tingō (“I wet”).

tint m (plural tints)

1. dyeing
2. dye(stuff)
3. dyeworks

• (act of dyeing): tenyida, tenyiment, tintura
• (result of dyeing): tenyit
• (dye): tintura
• (dyeworks): tintoreria

• tintar

• tenyir
• tintorer
• tintori

• “tint”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “tint” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “tint” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Alteration of earlier tinct, from Latin tinctus (“dyed”), past participle of verb tingō (“tinge”).

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• Rhymes: -ɪnt

tint c (plural tinten, diminutive tintje n)

1. hue

tint

1. inflection of tinten:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈtin(ʲ)t/, [ˈtʲin(ʲ)tˑ]

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -int, -inʲt
• Hyphenation: tint

From Middle Low German stint. First attested in 1660.^[1]

tint (genitive tindi, partitive tinti)

1. smelt (a small, slender freshwater fish with a dark back and silvery sides and belly; Osmerus)

   Synonym: tindikala

   Hyponyms: meritint, vikertint, kääbustint, Peipsi tint

• tindikala

• meritint (Osmerus eperlanus), vikertint (Osmerus mordax), kääbustint (Osmerus spectrum)

From German Tinte, ultimately from Medieval Latin aqua tīncta (“colored water, liquid”), from tīnctus, perfect passive participle of tingere (“to moisten; to dye, to colo(u)r”). First attested in 1869.^[2]

Replaced plakk, an earlier borrowing from Middle Low German black (“(black) ink”). A native neologism mustlik (from must (“black”); compare Russian черни́ла (černíla, “ink”), from чёрный (čórnyj, “black”)) has also been attested, but has not reached widespread use. In the 1715 translation of the New Testament, the sense was translated as raamatu must (literally, “book black”).^[3][4]

tint (genitive tindi, partitive tinti)

1. ink (an aqueous dye solution used for writing (with a quill), printing etc.) [from 19th c.]

   sinine tint ― blue ink

   tindiga kirjutatud tekst ― text written in ink

   Kiri on veel tindist märg. ― The text is still wet with ink.

   • 1964, August Alle, “Ruunat Pegasus [Gelded Pegasus]”, in Debora Vaarandi, editor, compiled by Ralf Parve, Väike luuleraamat (poetry), Tallinn: Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus, →ISBN, page 99:

     Olümbi harjal armetumat looma / ei elutsend kui Eesti Pegasus, / kes kõlbluskünast pidi tinti jooma / ja luule kohimehi üles tooma. / Sa vaene Eesti Pegasus!

     No more miserable animal dwelled on the crest of Mount Olympus / than the Estonian Pegasus, / who had to drink ink from the trough of morality / and bring up the eunuchs of poetry. / You poor Estonian Pegasus!

2. ink (a dark fluid ejected by some marine animals such as cuttlefish or squid)

• tint in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)
• “tint”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• “tint”, in [SP] Eesti keele sõnapered [Estonian Word Families] (in Estonian) (online version, continuously updated), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2012–

• IPA^(key): /tɛ̃/

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tint

1. third-person singular past historic of tenir

Apparently from German Tinte. See etymology at Latvian tinte.

• IPA^(key): /tint/

tint

1. ink
   • Tiit-Rein Viitso, Valts Ernštreits (2012–2013), Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz, Tartu, Rīga: TÜ, LVA

     tint – tint – tinte

     ink – ink – ink

Inherited from Old Norse tinta f (of unknown origin).

tint m or f (definite singular tinten or tinta, indefinite plural tintar or tinter, definite plural tintane or tintene)

1. a small bottle or cup
2. a small portion

• “tint” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring
• Alf Eriksen (1996) Ord og uttrykk frå Dovre (in Norwegian Nynorsk), page 209

tint

1. simple past tense and past participle of tyne

   An efterhin he tint a lot o weicht - Afterwards he lost a lot of weight